


Love Of My Life (You Were)

by Birdlovesafish (Motherbirdnerd), Motherbirdnerd



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, barchie, bughead - Freeform, marry me instead, too late, wedding fix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 19:20:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11088246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Motherbirdnerd/pseuds/Birdlovesafish, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Motherbirdnerd/pseuds/Motherbirdnerd
Summary: Archie makes a last ditch effort to win Betty Cooper back. On her wedding day.Inspired by the music video for "Bambi" by Jidenna which I also recommend highly. It gones nicely with the fic if you like that sort of thing.





	Love Of My Life (You Were)

Love Of My Life (You Were)

Archie is pretty sure this is the worst day of his life. He reaches again for the flask in his suitcoat pocket and takes a hearty swig.

His car, old but up to this point reliable had chosen today to give up the ghost and it sat parked horribly in the parking lot of the park he’d pulled over in, smoke rising from the engine lIke sending a burnt sacrifice up to God.

_God_. God must not want him there either today. Almost everyone he’d talked to had told him the same: Stay away Archie. Don't ruin this.

He checks his watch. The ceremony would just be starting now, maybe if he ran he could make it in time. In time for what he didn't know. To stop her? To declare his love for her? To beg her to come back to him?

His legs burned, pumping furiously against the concrete as he tried his best to run effectively in unyielding leather double monk straps, the sun beating down on his back, soaking his shirt with sweat.

He didn’t deserve another chance. Somewhere in the back of his drunken brain he knew that . He’d already gotten a second chance and he fucked that up like he always seemed to, his fatal flaw any woman who paid him the least bit attention. He should have started thoss therapy sessions like Betty suggested.

  Betty, oh Betty. Used to be _his_ Betty, now his ex- best friend’s Betty.

  Jughead had picked up the pieces after theit messy break up. He too had gotten a second chance.  

   Jughead however did not squander his chance, learning from

He’d taken it all the way to engagement and now marriage. A marriage Archie needed desperately to stop.

He was still in fine shape but even Archie had to stop and catch his breath for awhile, images of he and Betty seizing upon him like an attack. The sweet way she used to sigh his name when they made love, her sweet vanilla scent. It was all too much.

“It was always supposed to be me and you Betts. I've loved you for longer than I can remember.”

“You’re my destiny Archie.”

Did she forget so easily? He began to run again, burning tears drying with the wind generated from his speed. He reached the church just in time to see the recessional. The happy couple exiting the doors, smiling and laughing, arm in arm, flanked by family and friends who threw rice. A shiny convertible waited on the street for them, a huge “Just Married” sign hanging tackily from the bumper, no doubt decorated by the groomsmen.

Archie thought offhandedly that he should have been one of the groomsmen, would have been the best man at Jughead’s wedding if it had been any other girl. Anybody but his Betty.

She looked like an angel. Her hair pinned in an intricate chignon, her neck long, shoulders regal, her dress white lace and fitted to her body until it flared out in at her feet.

He lunged toward her but he was stopped by Reggie Mantle of all people, good friends with the couple after his marriage to Veronica two summers ago.

Reggie attempts to give Archie his dignity, let him walk away quietly but he will have none of it, fighting against him and yelling Betty’s name.

Betty looks first and then Jughead. Veronica shakes her head. Jughead looks as if he wants to clock him. Betty grabs his hand and touches his face though and he softens as she kisses him. Archie knows then that this is pointless. She is lost to him and he deserves it.

Jughead ushers her to the car, opening the door for her before going over to the driver’s side and she looks back at him.

Archie is excited, thinking maybe she’s had a change of heart but her gaze is full of embarrassment for him, sadness for his state. Not the unrequited love he’d hope to find in her big green doe eyes.

She doesn't look back again as Reggie, Kevin and Betty’s older brother Chic drag him away from the church and out of Betty’s life forever.

 

 

 


End file.
